Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said multinational companies need to give back to local communities and generate businesses for them to ensure long-term growthAgencies | May 12, 2017, 10:11 IST

The 49 -year-old Indian-American CEO underscored the need of multinational companies to give it back to local communities and generate businesses locally.Microsoft's India-born chief Satya Nadella has said that multinational companies need to give back to local communities and generate businesses for them to ensure long-term growth at a time when politicians from major countries are harping on nationalism.

“Any company that just collects rent internationally will be in trouble,“ Nadella told financial analysts at the company's annual developers' conference 'Microsoft Build 2017' here.

“One just cannot set up shop and give nothing back, one has to 'create local opportunity'," he said during the three-day conference that kicked off on Wednesday. These comments becomes more relevant at a time when politicians in major countries are stressing on nationalism and challenging the decades-old globalisation trend.

“Every head of state only cares about one thing: It is about their country first. In the US it is about America first, and in Britain it is about Britain first,“ he said, referring to US President Donald Trump's America First' policy. Trump vowed to focus his foreign policy on American interests and American national security .

In April, Trump announced a new executive order to promote his America First agenda, ordering the federal government to implement his buy American, and hire American policies. Trump also called for a review of the H-1B visa programme, saying they should never be used to replace American workers and must be given to the most skilled and highest paid applicants.

Nadella said companies must be able to show in terms of what they have done for that country. “In terms of local taxes, in terms of local small business productivity, local large business competitiveness, their educational outcomes, their entrepreneurial work, that's what matters,“ said the Microsoft CEO.